Oh CE, Kwon GY, Kwon YH, Lee EJ, Park MS, Kim SH, Jeon SM, Go UY, Park SE. High tuberculosis transmission rate in children with nursery exposure to undetected pulmonary tuberculosis.
Int J Tuberc Lung Dis 2019;
22:1031-1036. [PMID:
30092868 DOI:
10.5588/ijtld.18.0053]
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Abstract
SETTING
Nursery for newborns in Busan, Republic of Korea.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate tuberculosis (TB) transmission from a health care worker with active pulmonary TB to neonatal contacts.
DESIGN
For the first investigation, infants who had been in the nursery 3 months before the index patient was diagnosed with pulmonary TB were enrolled. After a child who had stayed in the nursery 10 months before the diagnosis of the index patient was diagnosed with tuberculous meningitis, a second contact investigation was conducted.
RESULTS
Respectively 315 and 1334 children participated in the first and second investigations. The mean age of the contacts was 66.3 days; the rate of latent tuberculous infection (LTBI) at the first investigation was 42.5% (134/315). Only one infant had an abnormal chest X-ray, and was thought to have pulmonary TB. In the second investigation, the mean age of the participants was 17.6 months. The proportion of children with LTBI was 18.7% (249/1334).
CONCLUSIONS
The LTBI rate in the present study was much higher than that estimated from other contact investigations. To minimise the risk of nosocomial TB transmission to neonates, screening and management of TB in health care workers should be strengthened.
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